Identification of singlet excited electronic states of toluidine isomers

The photoelectron and UV absorption spectra of para-, meta-, and ortho-toluidine in the gas phase are obtained. The photoelectron spectra in the energy region up to 15.5 eV are interpreted based on the B3LYP/6-311+G(d, p) calculations. Based on the TDDFT B3LYP/6-311+G(d, p) calculations and taking into account the obtained interpretation of photoelectron spectra, the UV absorption bands are assigned to particular singlet transitions. For each transition, the electron configuration that makes the dominant contribution to the transition is determined. It is shown that the transition energy for toluidine isomers depends on the energy gap between the corresponding occupied and unoccupied molecular orbitals. It is noted that this dependence is similar for different benzene derivatives.